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212 Natural Resources and Environmental Issues Volume VII
EDUCATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS
P.J. Daugherty Ph.D. 1 , B.E. Fox, Ph.D. 2 ,
Dean P. Angelides 3 , and Jim Lemieux 4
1
Assistant Professor, 2 Associate Professor, School of Forestry,
PO Box 15018, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ 86011-5018,
3
Vice President/Senior GIS Analyst, VESTRA Resources, Inc.,
962 Maraglia Street, Redding, CA 96002,
4
Forest Resource Systems Manager, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation,
P.O. Box 340, Calpella, CA 95418
ABSTRACT: A key objective of the professional forestry program in the School of Forestry at Northern Arizona University
(NAU) has been to prepare students to become practicing land managers. But in a state where the vast majority of the
commercial forestland ownership rests with the federal government or in tribal holdings, providing NAU students with exposure
to private forestland management practices is difficult.
To help address this issue, the authors began to develop a partnership with among School of Forestry, VESTRA Resources,
Inc., and Louisiana-Pacific Corporation (L-P). This effort was initially supported by a grant obtained from NAU’s Office of
Instructional Development and by funds provided by the Chair of the School of Forestry. The original intent of the grant
proposal was to acquire forest inventory data to use to create a case study in ecosystem management as part of the junior year
professional forestry curriculum. Initially, the goal of this case study was to combine two already inter-related components of
the forestry curriculum: Stand and forest level management.
This effort has generated benefits for all parties involved. For the NAU forestry program, the strong links with VESTRA
Resources have allowed us to further the development and application of forest ecosystem management decision support
systems. Relationship with one of their clients, Louisiana-Pacific Corporation, has provided us with an opportunity to acquire
“real world” case study materials to use in the curriculum. We have also extended the discussion into other avenues to develop
these partnership relationships.
For VESTRA Resources, the partnership provides a unique opportunity for development and validation of new or improved
approaches to forest ecosystem management planning and decision support. VESTRA has received valuable feedback on the
effectiveness of analysis methodology in their decision support software, and how the software tools and interfaces can be
changed to improve their usability. The partnership has also helped to incorporate some of the latest concepts and approaches
into the system. The real advantage of the partnership is that it provides a more rapid and complete advancement of the science
and technology needed for managing natural resources in the information age.
Louisiana-Pacific seeks to partner with Northern Arizona University around the issue of decision support tools for several
reasons. L-P does not have the expertise to internalize the continuing development of such tools to advance the utility of the
analytical process. L-P wants and needs to find future resource professionals who have a working knowledge of the processes
and tools needed to create sophisticated planning documents. And L-P would very much like to share its experience in
developing decision support systems and documents with resource-based university programs to meet its social as well as
regulatory obligations. L-P believes that Northern Arizona University has positioned itself to meet the needs of forest resource
companies and can provide the theoretical as well as practical skills through its faculty, staff, and students that will help meet
the needs of companies seeking to use advanced forest management planning tools.